New York Knicks fans got a first-hand view of NBA Playoff basketball for the first time since 2013 when they hosted the Atlanta Hawks for Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Playoff series Sunday evening.
Madison Square Garden and the roughly 15,000 fans in attendance was absolutely rocking even before the game itself got started. In fact, the pre-game introductions were amazing.
In a sign of pre-pandemic times, New York Knicks super fan and Academy Award-winning director Spike Lee was on hand to watch the rare playoff game in the Big Apple.
To say Mr. Lee was excited about the return of Knicks playoff basketball is an understatement. He was his own vibe out there.
No, that wasn’t Spike Lee throwing a temper tantrum on the court. Reggie Miller was not on hand to continue a spat that started decades earlier. The dude was legitimately pumped up about the Knicks playing a meaningful game in May.
Adding to the vibes in the Big Apple is the fact that Madison Square Garden was absolutely rocking. It’s something we saw earlier in the day when the Phoenix Suns took out the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of their playoff series in the desert.
Fans being in attendance after pretty much a calendar year of empty arenas due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Spike Lee’s return to the Garden only adds to the normalcy we’re getting back to.
Let’s hope this normalcy doesn’t include the New York Knicks bombing out in the playoffs. After all, they’ve made it out of the first round just once since the 1999-2000 season.
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